News

Russia's TV-3 television channel is facing fines for airing loud commercials, in the government's first attempt to enforce restrictions on sound volume in broadcast advertising, a news report said.

The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, the state agency that monitors compliance with advertising legislation, has deemed TV-3 guilty of violating the sound-volume requirements set by an advertising law, the agency's deputy head Andrei Kashevarov said Tuesday, the TASS news agency reported Tuesday.

The alleged infraction occurred during an August broadcast of the “Gadalka” (Fortuneteller) television series, when the difference in sound volume between the show and commercial breaks exceeded the legal threshold of 1.5 decibels, TASS reported.

Previously, the anti-monopoly agency dropped a similar case that residents of the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg tried to bring against STS Ural television channel, the report said.

The watchdog ruled at the time that the variations in sound volume in STS Ural broadcasts, which prompted complaints in Yekaterinburg, were registered between different programs, which is legal, instead of variations between the main broadcast and commercial advertisements, Kashevarov said, TASS reported.

“The same channel can be used for broadcasts by various media — for instance, federal and local ones, with varying levels of sound,” he was quoted as saying.